Albus Dumbledore (Epithalamium series)
Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore (b. 12 August 1881) is a main character in the Epithalamium series of stories by Squibstress. Early life Albus Dumbledore was born to a Muggle-born witch and a pure-blood wizard in Mould-on-the-Wold, a small, primarily wizarding village in the south of England, on 12 August 1881. Despite his pure-blood status, Albus's father, Percival Dumbledore, was not a wealthy man, but he provided a pleasant life for his wife and son by working as a potioneer, and by the time Albus was born, Percival had saved enough money to buy out the elderly proprietor of the village apothecary where he had worked for several years. Relationship with parents Percival was a loving, if somewhat distant, father, while Albus's mother, Kendra Dumbledore (née Morgan), was a shy and undemonstrative mother. A naturally effusive and physically affectionate child, young Albus grew to crave his parents' approval, and he would often try to impress them with ever more astonishing feats of magic. Percival was extrememly proud of his son's achievements, while Kendra was uncomfortable with Albus's talent and often tried to quell his natural exuberance. Early education When his brother, Aberforth (b. 1884), and sister, Ariana (b. 1885), came along, little Albus was delighted to have playmates; however, he soon discovered that his young siblings were not quite ready to play the kinds of complicated games he had invented to amuse himself. Kendra Dumbledore taught her children from what she had learned in the Muggle day school she had attended as a girl—reading, arithmetic, Latin, history, basic science— but as she had never attended any school of magic (although she had been tutored in magic in her teens), she could only teach them the rudiments of magical theory and spellcasting. Young Albus was frustrated at having no outlet for his natural talent, so in 1889, Percival arranged for him—and the following year, Aberforth—to spend a few hours each day with Percival's old friend from Hogwarts, Bathilda Bagshot. Madam Bagshot was a learned and highly educated witch, and Albus thrived under her tutelage, absorbing everything she could teach him about history and magical theory. Although she was a powerful witch, Bagshot was less interested in spellcasting and practical magic; however, she allowed her young pupil to conduct his own magical experiments under her watchful and critical eye. Family tragedy In July of 1891, Ariana Dumbledore was attacked by several Muggle boys who had witnessed her performing magic. The brutality of the assault left the girl mute and traumatised. Enraged, Percival Dumbledore found the boys responsible and subjected them to a number of curses, including the Cruciatus Curse. He was subsequenly tried by the Wizengamot and sentenced to life imprisonment in Azkaban. The Dumbledore family was suddenly notorious, and and the attention made the already-shy Kendra even more reclusive. Seeking to avoid even her old friends and neighbours, and to preclude questions about her daughter, she moved her family to Godric's Hollow at the suggestion of Bathilda Bagshot, who had a home in the largely wizarding village. Despite Bagshot's attempts to help the distressed family, it took Kendra several years to become receptive. The small amount she received from the sale of Percival's apothecary would last only so long, she realised, so she began to take in washing from the Muggle families of the area, as her mother had done before her. Hogwarts years Now with a fractured family and feeling deeply guilty for abandoning them, Albus went off to Hogwarts in September of 1892. Sorted into Gryffindor House, Albus soon found school a refuge. Away from the pressures of his family, Albus was suddenly free to exercise both his prodigious magical and intellecutal gifts and his gregarious nature. He naturally excelled in all his classes, and he quickly became a favourite of many professors, notably Galatea Merrythought, who joined the Hogwarts staff as Defense Against the Dark Arts mistress in Albus's fifth year, and who became a mentor and lifelong friend. New friends Initially, Albus felt like an outsider at school, thanks to the recent publicity about his father's crime, and at first, many students expected him to subscribe to anti-Muggle philosophy, however he gave no outward sign of it. By the end of his first year, he was well-liked among the students and made several close friends. Perhaps made more empathetic by his family tragedy, Albus made a point of befriending those shunned by others, including Elphias Doge, who was badly pockmarked, and Filius Flitwick, whose short stature and Goblin grandmother marked him as an outsider. Extraordinary scholar In his fifth year, Albus became a Gryffindor prefect and was made Head Boy in his seventh. Despite his popularity, Albus eschewed most other extra-curricular activities (although he served as British Youth Representative to the Wizengamot in his seventh year), preferring to concentrate on his academic pursuits. Also during his fifth year, he was introduced to renowned alchemist Nicolas Flamel, and the two began working together on several projects over the following summer. In December of 1896, Albus and Flamel travelled to the International Alchemical Conference in Cairo, where they were presented with the society's gold medal for ground-breaking contribution to alchemical science. Albus undertook eight N.E.W.T.s: Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Charms, Defence Against the Dark Arts, Potions, Herbology, History of Magic, and Transfiguration, receiving "Outstanding" marks in all but Arithmancy, for which he received an "Exceeds Expectations". So impressed was examiner Griselda Marchbanks with Albus's performance in his Transfiguration exam that she petitioned the Ministry of Magic's Division for Magical Education to bestow upon him the rarely-given Barnabus Finkley Prize for Exceptional Spell-Casting, which came with a 100-Galleon award. Albus was particularly excited about the money, as it would allow him to join his friend Elphias Doge on the world tour the latter was planning. Relationship with Gellert Grindelwald Albus's plans were tragically altered when his sister, Ariana (who could not control her strong magic), accidentally killed their mother when she caused an explosion in their small home. Albus, now head of the family, was compelled to remain in Godric's Hollow to care for his young sister and his brother, who was still two years away from attaining his majority. Devastated by his mother's death, Albus set about his task with grim determination, repairing the house and comforting his siblings. As the days wore on, Albus grew more and more depressed and resentful at being stuck keeping house in a small English town rather than exploring the world and its wonders. His neighbour and former teacher, Bathlida Bagshot, provided tea and sympathy to the young man, and when her great-nephew, Gellert Grindelwald, came to stay with her, she was delighted to introduce him to Albus, thinking the two young men would find they had much in common. Grindelwald was fascinating to Albus. He was brilliant and possessed of a powerful magic, and the two immediately took to one another. In his loneliness, Albus became somewhat obssessed by the other boy and began to neglect his duties to his sister in order to spend time talking with Grindelwald—a fact that caused a great deal of tension between Albus and his brother, Aberforth. Although he had never admitted it, Albus harboured a secret resentment toward Muggles, blaming their "stupidity" for the tragedy that had befallen his family ever since the attack on Ariana. Gellert Grindelwald sensed it and began to encourage it by spinning tales of a "utopia" in which wizards would naturally hold dominion over Muggles, "for the greater good." Albus, freed of guilt for his secret anti-Muggle sentiment, eagerly joined the younger boy in spinning elaborate plans for bringing about this utopia. Grindelwald, eager to gain full control over the more powerful Dumbledore, used Albus's loneliness and gradually seduced him. Albus, who had never been in love, nor had a sexual relationship with anyone, was overwhelmed by Gellert's attentions and fell in love with the boy. The two young men made plans to travel the world and persuade other like-minded wizards to join their cause; however, Aberforth refused to allow them to take Ariana with them. The disagreement between the three young men escalated until, one evening, it errupted into a duel, during which Albus began to recognise the madness of his young lover. An agitated Ariana wandered into the crossfire and was killed. Nobody knew whose wand had cast the lethal curse. Grindelwald, who was already suspected of murder in his native Switzerland, fled, leaving a devastated Albus behind. Aberforth, who, despite his terrible grief, kept his head and told the authorities that another accident had killed Ariana, thus preventing his family from being tainted by another terrible scandal. The relationship between the two brothers, however, was destroyed for good, and the fight that errupted at their sister's funeral convinced Albus that he needed to leave Godric's Hollow before he could wreak more damage on what was left of his family. Using what little money his mother had left, combined with part of his prize money, Albus set up a trust for Aberforth's education and upkeep and arranged for Madam Bagshot to look in on him during school holidays until he came of age. Then Albus left for the Continent. Travel Albus would spend the next ten years travelling the world and studying magic—particularly the Dark Arts of each region—hoping at first to find a way to bring his loved ones back from beyond the Veil. During this time, Albus amassed a wealth of knowledge about many areas of magic, but he utlimately came to believe that the dead were best left to rest. His studies had convinced him that death was but a doorway to another way of being, and that it was not to be feared, but respected. This was carried over into his attitude toward the Dark Arts, and despite the evil he had encountered in Gellert Grindelwald, Albus would always hold steadfastly to the belief that no type of magic was inherently "dark" or "light," but that it was the practitioner's intent that rendered it so. It was also during his travels that Albus got his first taste of teaching. He had arrived in a small, mostly wizarding town outside Leeuwarden. Happening upon a group of young wizards tormenting a Muggle girl, he intervened and quickly dispatched all eight of the wizards in a few short minutes. A member of the Ministerraad Magisch witnessed the fight and was so impressed with Albus's prowess that he invited the young man to tutor his children in magical arts. Albus did this for several months, and when it was time for him to move on, the minister provided him with a glowing letter of introduction and references. Albus continued to travel, stopping for a few months in a given place and using his references to find tutoring work to supplement the little money he had brought with him. He found that he enjoyed teaching and became fairly good at it, although his focus continuted to be on his own studies. In Soissons, Albus spent a year studying with the renouned Transfiguration master, Abélard Durant, who came out of retirement and seclusion to work with the impressive young man. Transfiguration work at Oxford In 1910, Albus returned to England. He immediately received an invitation from Griselda Marchbanks to assist her in setting up a research laboratory at Mallory College, the magical constituent of Oxford University. He gladly accepted, and the two spent the next seven years conducting and publishing research in Transfiguration. As a result, Albus finally began to achieve a certain amount of fame in magical academic circles. During this time, Albus re-encountered his old friend Filius Flitwick, who was working with Oxford's Charms master. The two immediately re-established their old friendship, and Albus was saddened to discover that Flitwick had endured his own tragedies, having lost his young wife and daughter to the dreaded dragon pox several years previously. Alchemy with Nicolas Flamel Through Madam Marchbanks, Albus renewed his acquaintance with alchemist Nicolas Flamel, and in 1917, he left Oxford at Flamel's invitation to work with him on several important projects. They were the first to describe the chemical properties of alcahest, a feat only made possible by Flamel's possession of a philosopher's stone, from which it was distilled, and Albus's discovery that dragon's blood was the only substance impervious to the solvent. Albus spent the next several years researching the remarkable properties of dragon's blood, and by 1926, he had discovered and described twelve uses for the substance, including as the base for the first Blood-Replenishing-Potions, which won him his first Order of Merlin (Third Class) for services to wizarding society. A gathering storm During this time, disturbing rumours had begun to reach Albus's ears about a Dark wizard gathering followers on the Continent, and Albus spent several more years traveling, his ear to the ground, to try to discover more. He returned to England nearly certain that his old lover, Gellert Grindelwald, was finally begining to put into motion the plans he had made with Albus all those years ago. Albus knew he should go after Grindelwald to attempt to prevent him from gaining power, but Albus was terribly torn, and afraid that he might once again be tempted by Gellert's visions of the most powerful wizards reigning supreme over the Muggle and wizarding worlds "for the Greater Good." The conflict within him grew nearly unbearable, and Albus entered a period of dissipation that ended only when Flamel took him away to Asia for a month and forced him to think soberly about the direction his life was to take. Return to Hogwarts When Albus returned again to Britain, his friend Filius Flitwick urged him to consider applying for the newly-vacant Transfiguration post at Hogwarts. He did, and Headmaster Armando Dippet was delighted to offer him the job, so in 1929, Albus Dumbledore returned at last to Hogwarts. He soon found he liked teaching, and he liked the peace he found at the school, sheltered as it was from the temptations and terrors of the outside world. Affair with Minerva McGonagall In 1943, Albus realised that he had begun to have romantic feelings towards one of his students, Minerva McGonagall, a talented seventh-year Gryffindor whom he had been mentoring. Although he initially tried ignore his feelings, the two embarked on an affair in December of that year. By June 1944, Dumbledore had come to believe that the relationship posed too much danger to Minerva, and he broke it off; however, he never forgot her, and he followed her subsequent career from afar. Duel with Gellert Grindlewald The situation on the Continent had continued to deteriorate throughout the late 1930s and 1940s, with Gellert Grindelwald gaining large numbers of supporters and making open attacks on Muggles and officials of wizarding governments who opposed him. Grindelwald took advantage of the chaos that resulted from Nazi Germany's aggression against its neighbours in Eastern and Central Europe to attempt to destabilise the wizarding governments and societies in the region. In the autumn of 1944, the International Confederation of Wizards pressed British Minister for Magic Lycurgus Greengrass to request that Dumbledore attempt to locate and, as the generally-acknowledged most powerful wizard in Britain, and possibly the world, capture or kill the wizard who was laying waste to the wizarding societies of Continental Europe. Despite his misgivings about confronting his old lover, Albus agreed, and set about trying to locate Grindelwald's headquarters. His investigation eventually led him to Dresden, where he and a group of specially-selected law enforcement agents cornered Grindelwald in his bunker. A spectacular duel ensued, and Grindelwald was captured. The duel took place on 13 February 1944, just as Allied forces dropped 3,900 tonnes of incendiary bombs and other explosives on the German city, and after defeating Grindelwald, Albus was trapped inside the burning bunker. He was saved by the use of a Bubble Charm that prevented the smoke and fire from reaching him, although he was grievously injured. After several weeks recuperating in an improvised Muggle hospital, he was able to return to Britain, where he was hailed as a hero. Post-war honours For his work in ending the war, Albus was awarded an Order of Merlin, First Class, and the following year, he was voted in as an elder of the Wizengamot, where he was to serve for the next fifty years, eventually rising to the position of Chief Warlock. In 1949, he was elected by the Wizengamot as Britain's representative on the International Confederation of Wizards. He became Supreme Mugwump of the body in 1968. Dumbledore's tenure with both these organisations ended in 1955, when he was briefly discredited by the Ministry during the lead-up to the Second Wizarding War. He eventually returned to both, although he declined to take up his previous leadership positons. Headmaster of Hogwarts Armando Dippet's health had begun to decline throughout the mid-1950s, and when he died two weeks after the close of the spring 1956 term, Albus assumed his duties as interim Headmaster. He was confirmed in the post at a July meeting of the Hogwarts Board of Governors. One of his first acts as Heamaster was to replace the retiring Charms master, Herbert Burke, with his old friend Filius Flitwick. He also persuaded a reluctant Flitwick to take on the role of Deputy Headmaster. Marriage Albus was surprised to receive Minerva McGonagall's application to replace him as Transfiguration teacher at Hogwarts, however she was by far the most qualified applicant for the post, and when they met for her interview, he hired her on the spot. He knew she had been involved with several men in the years since their affair, and he hardly expected her to want to rekindle their old romance once she became his colleague, however he had never quite gotten over her, and he found himself finding excuses to spend more time with her as time went on. At the urging of Filius Flitwick, who had recognised that Albus was "quite smitten" with the young Transfiguration teacher, Albus tentatively began to persue her. The pair quickly realised that they were still in love with one another, and despite Albus's distraught confession of his former infatuation with the Dark wizard Gellert Grindelwald, he and Minerva became lovers once again. Worried about Tom Riddle's intentions toward Minerva—the young man had continued to pester her before apparently disappearing for several years—and concerned about a possible scandal should word of their affair get out, Dumbledore proposed marriage to Minerva. She accepted, and they were wed in a small ceremony in Minerva's family home on Christmas Eve 1957. The couple told few people of their relationship, preferring to keep it quiet for the sake of safety and because Minerva was reluctant to become a public figure. Over the years, the small circle of those in the know expanded slightly, but the pair would always strive to preserve their privacy. Minerva's pregnancy Despite the fact that Albus had been told he was unlikely to be able to father children, Minerva became pregnant In the summer of 1967. With Tom Riddle's apparent disappearance and the subsequent decrease in Death-Eater activity, the world seemed safer to Albus and Minerva, so the couple decided to have the baby. However, on 19 October, Minerva suffered a placental abruption and delivered a stillborn son, whom the bereaved parents named Marcus Alpin Brian Dumbledore. Minerva subsequently became gravely ill with disseminated intravascular coagulation, a complication caused by excessive bleeding, and she hovered near death for two days before her life was saved by an emergency hysterectomy and blood transfusion. Albus insisted on being the donor, which turned out to have an unanticipated side-effect: the combination of magical blood created a unique bond between the him and Minerva, and forever afterward, each would be able to feel the other's magic under certain conditions. First Wizarding War In the early 1970s, Albus began to hear disturbing rumours of activity among the former followers of Tom Riddle, and he eventually drew the conclusion that Tom Riddle—now calling himself "Lord Voldemort"—had returned to Britain and was intent on gaining power in order to subjugate Muggles and Muggle-borns, much as Gellert Grindelwald had tried to do three decades prior. His warnings went generally unheeded by the Ministry of Magic and his colleagues in the Wizengamot, so he and a group of Aurors, led by Alastor Moody, formed the Order of the Phoenix, an underground organisation dedicated to fighting Riddle and his Death Eaters. Thanks to the respect Dumbledore inspired in his students, a large number of youthful volunteers came from among their ranks, including Alice and Frank Longbottom, James and Lily Potter, and Arthur and Molly Weasley. Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Category:Head Boys Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Category:English Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series) Dumbledore, Albus (Epithalamium series)